ShmoopTube

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[Coop and Dino singing]

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Movies depend on all sorts of elaborate stuff, from huge sets to fancy special effects. [People watching Batman at a theater]

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But some of the most important stuff is what comes out of the actors' mouths.

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And no, we don't mean all of that gross spit that flies out when actors get super passionate. [Spit flies out of Batmans mouth]

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We mean dialogue.

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Dialogue is what two or more characters say to each other in a piece of fiction, whether

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it's a book, play, or movie. [Coop talking about dialogue]

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Usually, dialogue contains some of the piece's most dramatic moments, and it tends to be

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what people quote once they leave the theater.

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After all, it's kinda tough to quote the facial expressions of an actor…y'know, like [Girl makes facial expression in class]

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"He kinda moved his eyes a bit like this…"

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That doesn't exactly get people smiling and nodding with recognition.

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Dialogue is also very important for helping the audience understand the characters, because

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how someone speaks tells us a lot about them.

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For instance, if one requests an ice cream cone by saying: "One scoop of vanilla, please," [Girl asks for Ice cream]

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the audience will get the sense that this character's pretty polite.

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However, if they say: "Hey, doofus!

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Gimme one scoop of vanilla, and step on it!" the audience gets the impression that this [Guy wearing leather jacket and sunglasses demands ice cream]

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character's impatient and rude.

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We kinda hope he drops his cone on the ground…

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Anyway, long story short: it's important to work on dialogue if you ever want to be a writer.

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You'll need to have good sense of how people talk in the real world to write dialogue that

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sounds realistic.

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And the more you listen to speech, the more you'll recognize that people don't always speak

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in full sentences, using a mix of context and body language to fill in the gaps.

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It might drive grammar buffs crazy, but it makes for realistic dialogue. [Man in a stray jacket]

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The more time you spend listening to dialogue in the streets, and studying it in fiction,

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the better you'll be at crafting dialogue of your own. [Girl reading a book in a trash can]

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And maybe someday, your lines will come out of an actors mouth!

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Hopefully with no spit attached…

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